Programming IDX to steal?

[I.B. Washincars]

I was wanting to program my IDX acceptors to steal a generic token that is common in my town. I was talking to Jim at Etowah yesterday and asked if I could do that. He said there was one position on an IDX that could be programmed at 0 credit. He thought it was #4, but I tried that today with no luck. I didn't try any other positions since I am already using four of them. Does anyone know if 4 is correct or did I just do something wrong?

 

[Randy]

This is right out of the IDX manual,

The coin you don’t want to accept must be learned in Coin Position #1. Turn to position #1 and press the test button 13 times, drop the same sample coin through that you do not want to accept 6 times.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I want to accept it, but I don't want to give any credit for it. That's a nice way of saying I want to steal it.

BTW, I tried running 6 coins on position 4, but without pushing the credit button. I have discovered that way doesn't work.

 

[pitzerwm]

What about adding a relay that when 4 is picked it opens the power circuit and resets the timer? One issue that I see is that they would do vandalism, because they "got ripped off".

 

[Randy]

I don't think you can accept the coin/token and not give credit for it with the IDX coin acceptor.

I did have a customer who wedged open the coin acceptor shoe so that any coin would drop into his coin box, Nickels, Dimes, other car washes tokens without giving credit for them. He put a small sticker on the face plate that said "US Quarters only all other coins will be lost" He was surprised at the amount of Nickels, Pennies, Dimes, and other car wash tokens he got.

 

[MEP001]

I've had some trouble with people filling the reject chute with nickels, dimes and pennies until the acceptor is filled up and jammed. I've thought about removing the gate so that all coins will drop straight into the safe, but I can't quite get all the acceptors to take 100% of good coins. Every so often I find a quarter in the reject slot or sitting in the bottom of a vendor.

I know for sure you can't program an IDX to "steal" a token the way you want, because in order to program a coin you have to press the credit value button at least once, thereby assigning it a value.

Why are you trying to steal them? I'm assuming that you're already able to differentiate between your own accepted coins and these generic ones, otherwise your own tokens would also be of no value.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I might be wrong, but i was under the impression, that slot was for say a token that is giving you grief, and you are suppose to program it into the acceptor to assure complete rejection, but maybe it can be programmed to take it without credit.

 

[MEP001]

I might be wrong, but i was under the impression, that slot was for say a token that is giving you grief, and you are suppose to program it into the acceptor to assure complete rejection, but maybe it can be programmed to take it without credit.

Yes, program slot 1 is to program in a coin you specifically don't want to take, which never really made sense because it shouldn't take a coin that isn't programmed in anyway. I suppose if there's a token with a very similar metal content that gets by that it could be programmed in that slot to help reject it. But it can't be used to program a coin that gets accepted with no credit, and there's no way to program a regular slot that way because you must assign a value to a slot before you can run coins through for it to learn.

 

[thoffmanjr]

You could program it to give 2 pulses. Get a small PLC to receive all pulses from all bays and echo them to your timers with the PLC's relays. If 2 pulses come into the PLC ignore them. Small PLC's are less than $500.

 

[pitzerwm]

A small one at Automation Direct is around $100

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I'm not willing to do anything significant since it's not that big of an issue. At one time I was using the blue Microcoins and had an issue with a special token I was selling to cops being confused with a nickel. I just programmed the nickels in at high security and O credit and the problem went away quickly. The same happened with that competitors token. Stealing it makes them stop trying and trying. I don't think anyone ever mentioned losing a nickel or that other token and no vandalism either.